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SMT-Oct2017

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October 2017 • SMT Magazine 41
es what some say is the most serious threat to
the industry that there has ever been. Look also
into your own life—the flights you take, the car
journeys you embark on, the medical devices
you depend on in times of need, the control-
lers of the nuclear power plant that is supply-
ing your electricity, and all the other electronic
aids that are now an integrated part of your life.
To what degree of tolerance are you willing to
accept the risk and consequences of counterfeit
materials?
SMT
Michael Ford is the European
marketing director for Aegis
Software.
COUNTERFEIT: A QUALITY CONUNDRUM
The materials are already uniquely labeled. The
infrastructure is in place to manage any devia-
tions or defects in material performance.
There are now two active tools against coun-
terfeit materials in manufacturing, made possi-
ble in a way that brings business benefits ev-
ery day, plus, has the potential value of being
able to avoid catastrophic quality events due
to counterfeit materials, quickly and quietly
managing any minimal consequences that may
have occurred. This is the smart way to move
forward. It is time to become aware of the latest
modern smart software for manufacturing out
there. The default options of enterprise resource
planning (ERP), and perhaps a simple manufac-
turing execution system (MES), will not provide
the specialist tools needed in this new world
that we made for ourselves. Look around now
for your smart logistics solution that address-
What's Up in Scandinavia's EMS Industry?
By Dieter G. Weiss, Weiss Engineering
Scandinavia, consisting of Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, and Finland is relatively small in regard
to the overall European EMS revenues, and counts
for less than 6% of the total European EMS pro-
duction value. Nevertheless, more than 160 com-
panies offer EMS services in Scandinavia, not
counting companies who only manufacture ca-
ble harnesses or just do design work, box building,
and after-sales ser
vices. Even so, there are some
larger companies with several different manufac-
turing locations.
By far, the biggest EMS hub in Scandin via is Swe-
den, with nearly 50% of all EMS companies. Finland
and Denmark are nearly equal regarding the number of
companies, and
Norway has about half of the number of
EMS providers compared to Denmark. If one looks at the
revenues, Finland is double that of Denmark; while
Norway's
EMS revenues are more than 30% than that
of Denmark.
Talking about growth rates, it be-
comes tricky. Many people convert
all numbers into U.S. dollars. Where-
as, this might be a way to compare
the countries on a global scale, it
does not necessarily
reflect what the
situation in the individual country is.
The US dollar is not the center of the
world and neither is the euro. In Scandinavia, only
Finland has converted its currency 17 years ago to
euro. All other Scandinavian countries still have their
individual currencies such as the Norsk krone, the
Svenska krona and the Dansk krone. The Dansk kro-
ne has been stable to the euro over the last three
years, but the Svenska krona changed nearly 9.5%
to the
euro from 2013 to 2016, and the Norsk krone
even 19% at the same time.
Therefore, it is not a wonder that EMS manufac-
turers in Norway had a decline in revenues of more
than 4% calculated in euro in 2016 compared to
2015, but in Norsk krone, it was just minus 0.5%.
In Sweden, a decline of more than 2% in euro even
turned into a plus of 0.5% when looked at in lo-
cal currency. The same is valid for Great Britain and
Switzerland, where negative growth in euro convert-
ed to a positive change in local currency.
The
worrying
point of the Scandinavian EMS in-
dustry is that in Norway, 50% of all companies re-
ported losses in 2015 as well as in
2016, and the average profit after
tax fell to a low of 0.3% of revenues.
In Sweden, Finland and Denmark,
25% of
all companies reported loss-
es. At least in Sweden, profitability
was better and even improved com-
pared to 2015.